Not one of them even blinked.
“Look here,” Barnabas said jovially…and pointed at me. Shit. “Scrawny, unskilled, useless—but you breed himonceand he can heal from bullet wounds. Have you continued to breed him? What can he do now?”
I wasn’t going to show offense or cringe at his word choice—though it was totally cringe-worthy and Iwasoffended—because Barnabas had made the mistake of dangling Hamilton’s mate in front of him. The very air vibrated with his growl.
“Might he soon grow his own wings?” Barnabas went on, oblivious to the danger. “That is a dream for so many of us. To fly. And you would keep this away from us? You would truly deny humans the ability to fly?”
“Oh,” Hamilton practically purred in the worst way, “I can make you fly.”
I gasped and Row cursed when Hamilton grabbed Barnabas and shot straight up into the air like a fucking rocket! His wingstook the two of them higher and higher, and I just knewflyingwasn’t what Barnabas was about to do.
“Oh, shit,” I whispered as Barnabas startedfalling, his screams growing louder the closer he got to the deck until—Splat!I had to close my eyes as Row made a gagging noise. Barnabas was a popped water balloon of blood and guts that had splashed every single one of us standing here watching. They were horrified. I was kind of horrified. And then Hamilton landed like a goddamned superhero and his voice carried easily over the silence.
“We were youralliesuntil him! Now you’re on the brink of war with all of us. A war you haveno hopeof winning! Choose wisely. Your species depends on it.”
Holy shit. I shivered from more than the chill of being naked and hoped very much that those military dudes believed him.
“That’s murder!” Stiller screamed, blood and guts all over him. “That’s your act of war! Kill him!” He pointed to Hamilton, his crazy eyes on the military men behind him. “Kill them ahhhh!”
That giant snake man had literally backhanded Stiller with his tail, sending the weasel flying off the side of the ship. I didn’t hear a splash or a thunk, but the screaming stopped abruptly.
All of a sudden, two of the military dudes stepped forward with their hands out. I couldn’t hear a thing either of them said, but they shook Snake’s and Hamilton’s hands with smiles on their faces. I assumed they were thanking our guys for killing that little Nazi because nobody liked Stiller.
I heard several feet padding up behind me, but couldn’t tear my eyes away from Hamilton as he walked my way. The rising sun was making his back and wings begin to smoke just enough to notice, but he made for one hell of a sight as he stalked over.
“You’re amazing, and I love you,” I gushed when he got close enough.
He smiled, all fangs, and looped me under his arm to face those behind us.
A naked man with a really big gun—an actual gun; we were all cold out here—looked to Row before addressing Hamilton. “Sir, we’ve secured the rest of the crew, soldiers, and scientists. We’ve also freed all other captives from the lower levels. Two of, um… The, uh…”
“Supernaturals,” Hamilton offered.
“Yes, sir. Two of the supernaturals are too big to come up the stairs and can’t, um, shrink? At all, so we’ll need to dock in order to offload them from their level. Some of the crew know how to make that happen.”
“Too big?” I asked in astonishment since I assumed everyone had been here for the same reason. “Like, how big?”
The guy looked at me with wide eyes. “I think they might be dinosaurs.”
“Dragons,” Hamilton said. “There are a few breeds that don’t shift.”
But I was still trying to imagine dinosaur dicks and human asses and how that could ever possibly work. Where there’s a will?
“Let’s get underway then,” Hamilton went on. “Get everyone washed, if possible, and clothed in shifts so that someone’s always covering the crew.”
“Yes, sir.”
That guy left, and I started tugging Hamilton around to the shadow of a cargo container to get him out of the sun. “It’s alright,” he insisted. “Just a mild sunburn.”
“Then do the shifting thing to heal yourself.”
He complied, turning human and staying that way as he wrapped his arms around me. “How are you with all this…death? Can you forgive me?”
“Forgive you?” I squeezed him. “If you hadn’t, I would’ve. And it’s all been self-defense.”
“Barnabas wasn’t?—”
“Yes, he was. Everyone here knows that he might’ve gotten a slap on the wrist to appease you all, but he’d be right back to his work soon after. Just more secret. Thicker glass and shit like that. And Stiller would’ve been bankrolling it all or whatever assholes like him do to hurt people. You just saved lives.”
